90

What a way to kick off the new millennium this was. It was vulgar, offensive, and it tore into just about everyone. From Pamela and Tommy Lee to Britney Spears, no one was off limits. Eminem didn’t give a shit and he told it like it was, and this one skyrocketed him into getting his first single to top the chart in the UK. Here’s to the coolest song to reference the Discovery Channel (besides The Bloodhound...

89

‘Modern Guilt’ was a short, often sonically meandering and lyrically baffling kind of an album, and its preview track was no exception. By this point Beck had more than settled into his role as one of America’s most chameleonic, constantly compelling performers, and on this he delivered a mantra of conspiracy theorist paranoia that only served to intrigue us all even further. His beautiful falsetto here sits...

88

When The Horrors emerged in 2006 as gothically themed garage rockers, hype quickly gave way to backlash. The darlings of Southend’s Junk Club scene were dismissed as one-trick ponies, and poor sales of 2007 debut album ‘Strange House’ cost them their major-label deal. When they returned in 2009, they were unrecognisable. Mesmeric comeback single ‘Sea Within A Sea’ ran to seven minutes instead of the...

87

It wasn't until Vice Records released 'Good Bad Not Evil' in the UK in 2007 that Atlanta dirt-rockers Black Lips came to wide(ish) public attention in Blighty, but the shove couldn't have been heralded better than by their greatest song – the moody, brooding yet rip-throat raucous 'O Katrina!'. With a bass intro more hummy than a beehive, the song soon explodes into a clatter that personifies their cut-loose...

86

Whereas Foals’ debut, ‘Antidotes’, was packed full with strange, vaguely math-ish constructions, like a spiky game of Tetris, the introduction to its follow-up, ‘Total Life Forever’, gaped like a hole in the heart. It’s sparse, deathly chilling and emotionally naked – Yannis sings rather than barks, and whilst the lyrics are hardly explicit, his order, or invitation – “Forget the horror here”...

85

What a track. From the opening choir-like vocals and slamming piano chords, a sound like screaming children and warm, rolling bassline, it's clear that this is no ordinary song. "I wanna get in the sunlight" sings frontman Chris Keating as the music ascends into a blur of Middle Eastern-influenced, psychedelia-infused, whirling, trippy, gospel goodness. Hailing from – where else? – Brooklyn, the band released...

84

They only released one album this decade (2001's 'We Love Life'), and this was its best track. The lyric is one of Jarvis Cocker's finest, pointing out that there's no substitute for feeling real love by way of pointing out a number of popular cultural landmarks gone rotten (the Stones in The '80s, Tom & Jerry when they could talk and, cheekily, album producer Scott Walker's ''Til The Band Comes In' album). Oh,...

83

Cast your mind back to 2000 and Beyoncé was the one in Destiny's Child who had something, well… a bit special about her. Ostensibly a trio, it was clear that Beyoncé was the leader of the pack. But what a pack they formed: Beyoncé, plus sidekicks Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, were every bit as bold and beautiful as the 'Charlie's Angels' whose film this song provided the soundtrack for. "The watch I'm...

82

It's become a bit of a drive-time, FM-rock cliché – which is strange, because 'Sex On Fire' is really quite a filthy song, describing a shag so mind-bendingly amazing, it's almost a bit scary ("Knuckles are pale, feels like you're dying…"). Caleb Followill didn't think much of it at first, he didn't want to include it on 'Only By The Night', but he was convinced otherwise. Just as well – it became...

81

It seems strange now, but in 2005, no one knew quite what the fuck to make of Antony Hegarty. Part Nina Simone, part Boy George (with a splash of Robert Smith and Alison Moyet lobbed in for a laugh), he was a jazz diva on one hand and a 6ft 4in transgendered lost child on the other. No wonder we were confused. What was obvious to everyone was that Antony was a unique talent and a master of refined melancholy. This...